\section{File formats}\label{general.fileFormat}
All GROOPS files are written either in XML, binary, or ASCII format depending on the filename extension.
\begin{itemize}
\item \verb|.xml|: XML format
\item \verb|.dat|: binary format
\item \verb|.txt| and all other extensions: ASCII format
\end{itemize}

With an additional extension of '\verb|.gz|' files are directly compressed and uncompressed. It is also possible to directly uncompress and read (but not write) \href{https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compress}{Unix compress}'d files ('\verb|.Z|').

Comments are allowed in ASCII files and all the text starting from the character '\verb|#|' to the end of the line is ignored.

The program \program{FileConvert} can be used to convert between the different formats. This program is also useful to get
some general information of files in binary format.

The following special file types are used in GROOPS:
